Behind the Lens: Barry Ptolemy on Creating the Ray Kurzweil Documentary “Transcendent Man”

Posted on: August 17, 2010 / Last Modified: August 14, 2024

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In this edition of the Singularity Podcast, I was privileged to do a phone interview with Barry Ptolemy, the director and producer of Transcendent Man. Barry was very generous in making time in his busy schedule to share his thoughts on the making of the movie, the technological singularity in general, and Ray Kurzweil in particular.

Listen to the podcast and watch the trailer, but be forewarned — if you do so, then you may feel compelled to go and watch the movie 😉

Transcendent Man is a new documentary film about the life and ideas of inventor, futurist, singularitarian, and transhumanist Ray Kurzweil.

About Barry Ptolemy

At age 12, Barry Ptolemy was first inspired to create films on the set of E.T. where he worked closely alongside Steven Spielberg for the duration of the production. After attending USC Film School, Barry then wrote, directed and produced hundreds of commercials, television shows, and short-form documentaries. In 2006, his interest in the sciences led him to read Ray Kurzweil’s The Singularity is Near, upon which his first feature film is based.

About the Movie:

In Transcendent Man, Ptolemy follows Kurzweil around the globe as he presents the daring arguments from his best-selling book, The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology.

Kurzweil predicts that with the ever-accelerating rate of technological change, humanity is fast approaching an era in which our intelligence will become increasingly non-biological and trillions of times more powerful than today. This will be the dawning of a new civilization that will enable us to transcend our biological limitations. In Kurzweil’s post-biological world, there will be no clear distinction between human and machine, real reality and virtual reality. Human aging and illness will be reversed, world hunger and poverty will be solved, and we will ultimately cure death.

Barry Ptolemy’s film is coming soon to theatres near you. You can watch the movie trailer below or click the banner for more information.